News Archives - 2010

Urban Scrubs camp comes to Augsburg

AUGUST 2, 2010

Throughout the summer, the Augsburg campus is filled with campers. Sports camps, debate camps, and film camps. This week's camp—the first Urban Scrubs Camp—is a little different because of the long-term workforce development potential for our Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

Augsburg was one of the founding members of the Cedar-Riverside Partnership, a group made of the institutions in the neighborhood that are attempting to leverage their resources to make improvements to the area.

In taking a long-term look at the neighborhood, one of the biggest challenges is to determine how the youth of Cedar-Riverside can they be put in position to make a positive impact and have personal success as they become adults. Combine that with Fairview's predicted need for more healthcare professionals moving forward, and the idea of hosting a Scrubs Camp with HealthForce Minnesota became reality.

On Sunday, more than 70 high school students—the overwhelming majority from Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools and many from within blocks of Augsburg—moved onto campus for the week.

Over the next several days, the students will learn about possible careers in the healthcare field, experience college for a few days, and hopefully become excited about their futures. The model is based on the Scrubs Camp held each summer at Winona State University.

The programming for the camp is varied. There are sessions on preparing for college and presentations on various health career options. Students will spend a morning touring the U of M, there is a day at Snelling State Park, and MnSCU's mobile simulation lab will be on campus on Tuesday.

Many from the Augsburg community will play a role in the programming for the camp as students will learn about recovering and addiction counseling from Patrice Salmeri, being a physician assistant from faculty member Brenda Talarico, about nutrition from Brian Noy, and about water quality testing from chemistry faculty member Joan Kunz. A number of Augsburg students will also be involved with the camp.

The students will stay and eat at Augsburg though the end of the day on Thursday. The camp is also sponsored by HealthForce Minnesota, Fairview Health Systems, and the University of Minnesota.